Men At Work and the band’s publisher EMI have lost their appeal in the plagiarism case over ‘Kookaburra Sits In The Old Gum Tree’.
Larrikin, the current owner of the publishing of the song, sued Men At Work and EMI claiming that the 1934 song written by a school teacher was the basis of the Men At Work hit ‘Down Under’. The courts agreed.
It became a multi-million dollar case with the court originally ruling that Men And Work and EMI pay Larrikin 40-60% of the royalties from the song plus 5% of future earnings.
Larrikin’s Norm Lurie noticed the similarity only after it was broadcast as a trivia question on TV show Spicks and Specks.
Songwriter Colin Hay says that this ruling will have long-term repercussions for songwriters. "What was born out of creative musical expression, became both a technical and mathematical argument. This ruling will have lasting repercussions, and I suspect not for the better," he said after the initial ruling. Hay wrote ‘Down Under’ with Men At Work’s Ron Strykert.
The original Koobaburra song was written in 1934 by Toorak school teacher Marion Sinclair for a girl guides competition.
VIDEO: Ross Wilson, watch him perform the Daddy Cool classic Hi Honey Ho for Undercover uSessions:
